On the Market: Exploring Governors Island, City Island and the Hudson River

How much do you need to buy a home in New York City, where the median price is $388,900? Gothamist calculates that you should be pulling in about $89,000 a year after taxes to make that work. And good luck finding more than a studio for that in most parts of Manhattan or brownstone/Northern Brooklyn. Though for $489,000 one can buy an adorable little hideaway on City Island that was spotted by Curbed. And while commuting might be hell, it’s pretty roomy, with three bedrooms and two baths. It even has a fireplace.

And there’s always Inwood. The New York Times profiles the neighborhood that’s “always on the brink of coolness.” Which might be something of an understatement, but the neighborhood is legitimately charming and less expensive than most other parts of the city.

What counts for affordable in other parts of Manhattan: Aby Rosen’s RFR is selling condos for under $1 million on the Upper East Side, Curbed reports. And while all the units currently on the market range from $1 million to $3 million, some $795,000 apartments are expected in the future (presumably, they will be studios). Was there a time when charging $1 million for a one-bedroom, one-bath apartment wasn’t considered a deal?

So yes, gentrification is a never-ending saga in New York, but it’s actually not so widespread in all poor neighborhoods, especially those in smaller cities,Atlantic Cities reports. Poverty tends to be entrenched, and most neighborhoods transform slowly if at all, rather than experiencing anything resembling the drastic changes of the East Village or Williamsburg.

New York Magazine’s Justin Davidson visits the new park on Governors Island in advance of its opening/re-opening for the summer season. Red hammocks, sinuous paths and a little gritty, keep-on-the-grass have won him over. But the real question is how the park, which cost $75 million, will fit into a parks system that de Blasio has pledged will focus just as much on neighborhood parks as on tourist-magnets blockbusters.

Ending pedestrian fatalities numbers among Mayor Bill de Blasio’s laudable, though unrealistic goals. And while we should certainly work to reduce deaths, it’s good to know that New York City is the fourth safest U.S. city for pedestrians., according to Atlantic Cities, far far better than all major cities in the South and more or less the entirety of Florida.

This may be the last year for organized Hudson River swims, DNAinfo reports, though amazingly, not because of any of the many health hazards that come with swimming in New York’s waterways. They just have become kind of complicated to organize.